Henry William Oliver was born at Dungannon, County Tyrone, Ireland, one of six children of Henry William Oliver, a Scotch-Irish harness-maker, and Margaret (Brown) Oliver. George T. Oliver was his younger brother. The family emigrated to Pittsburgh in 1842.
Henry attended the public schools at Pittsburgh and Newell's Academy until the age of thirteen.
After the academy Henry Oliver became a messenger boy for the National Telegraph Company, along with Andrew Carnegie. For eight years he was employed by Clark and Thaw, forwarding agents, and by Graff, Bennett & Company, iron manufacturers. At Lincoln's first call for troops in 1861 he enlisted in the 12th Pennsylvania Volunteers and served a three months' term. When Lee invaded Pennsylvania in 1863 he again enlisted and fought in the battle of Gettysburg. In 1863 he organized the firm of Lewis, Oliver & Phillips for the manufacture of nuts and bolts on a small scale and in 1866 his brothers David and James were admitted to the firm. Upon the retirement of W. J. Lewis in 1880 the company adopted the name Oliver Brothers & Phillips. Still later (1888) it was incorporated as the Oliver Iron & Steel Company, with Henry W. Oliver as chairman of the board. In the twenty years following the Civil War the business grew to gigantic proportions. Oliver was identified with a great variety of ferrous industries, such as sheet and tin plate, steel wire, and pressed steel cars. He was also a builder of railroads, which he saw were essential to the industrial future of Pittsburgh. He was one of the original owners of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, was president of the Pittsburgh & Western Railway Company from 1890 to 1893, and promoted the Akron & Chicago Junction Railroad (now part of the Baltimore & Ohio) to secure better freight facilities with the West.
As a railroad man Oliver introduced important improvements, including the use of steel cars for safety. With his practical knowledge of iron and steel, Oliver foresaw the necessity of large mineral reserves, and his chief distinction is as a pioneer in opening the vast iron-ore region of Minnesota. Hearing in 1892 of the discovery by the Merritt brothers of the great Mesabi range north of Duluth, he hastened to inspect the diggings. When Leonidas Merritt showed Oliver specimens of high-grade ore lying practically on the surface, which could be loaded with one scoop of a steam-shovel at a labor cost of five cents a ton, Oliver needed little argument. He leased an enormous annual tonnage, organized the Oliver Iron Mining Company, built a railroad to Lake Superior, and began the great ore traffic from the lake ports to the Pittsburgh mills. Andrew Carnegie was sceptical of the value of "ore prospecting" and considered Oliver a harebrained enthusiast, but Oliver's logic impressed Henry Clay Frick, then the active head of the Carnegie Steel Company, who, against Carnegie's orders, joined forces with Oliver to exploit the Minnesota treasures. Eight years later the Oliver iron-ore interests, originally organized on a cash investment of some $600, 000, were bought by the newly formed United States Steel Corporation for $17, 000, 000. The "Oliver luck" became a Pittsburgh legend, but it was based more upon sound knowledge and driving energy than upon chance.
Oliver invested heavily in Pittsburgh real estate and business structures, and also became an organizer and the largest stockholder of the Pittsburgh Coal Company. In the far West he held extensive interests in Arizona copper mines. Oliver was a lifelong adherent of the Republican party. He served three years (1879 - 82) as president of the Common Council of Pittsburgh, was a delegate to four Republican National conventions (1872, 1876, 1888, 1892) and a presidential elector-at-large in 1880. In 1881 he was nominated by caucus for United States senator but was defeated on account of factional divisions in the party. He was highly influential in both state and federal policies, however, and in 1882 was appointed by President Arthur as representative of the iron and steel interests on a commission to draw up the metal schedules of the new tariff. Henry Oliver died in 1904. His estate was long the largest office building in Pittsburgh.
Henry Oliver was a lifelong member of the Republican party and a member of four Republican National conventions (1872, 1876, 1888, 1892).
Henry Oliver married in 1862 Edith A. Cassidy of Pittsburgh by whom he had one daughter.
